Hamister Project To Get In The Way Of Better Use Of Rainbow Blvd. Land?
by Mike Hudson
The problem in Niagara Falls isn’t that there aren’t enough hotel rooms. From luxury accommodations at Carl Paladino’s beautiful Giacomo Hotel or the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino to the Niagara Falls Boulevard Strip, where rooms can be had for well under $50 a night, there is rarely a time even at the peak of the tourist season when a visitor can’t find a room in the city.
So why all the fuss over Mark Hamister’s failed proposal to add 128 two-star rooms into the mix?
Finding middle class tourists a place to stay isn’t the problem. The problem is giving them something to do when they get here.
There’s never been any shortage of fine dining in the city, and there are more than enough good places to grab a cocktail, but a look across the river to Niagara Falls, Ontario, shows our neighbors have been busy creating something that’s gone all but unnoticed here.
Beneath the shadow cast by the Clifton Skywheel, there are dozens of attractions, fun for the whole family that doesn’t involved getting mugged at the 7-Eleven on a late night run for beer, soda and snacks.
From concepts as simple as The Great Canadian Midway – 70,000 square feet packed with rides and interactive games – to Bird Kingdom, a world class attraction featuring exotic birds, animals and reptiles presented in the environment of a lost city in the jungle, the Canadians have pulled out all the stops.
There’s the Waves Indoor Water Park, with its’ three-story waterslides, located right next door the Americana Waterpark Resort & Spa. Both of these facilities are owned by the DiCienzo family, which is trying mightily to gain a greater foothold on this side of the river, where it already owns the Days Inn at the Falls and the Sheraton at the Falls, along with the Rainforest Café, T.G.I. Fridays and the Starbucks Café.
Developer Michael DiCienzo told the Niagara Falls Reporter that his family has invested around $50 million on this side of the river and would like to double that investment in the next few years.
The Guinness Book of World Records Museum, the Movieland Wax Museum of the Stars, the House of Frankenstein, Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks, Niagara Freefall – where indoor parachuting is offered – and numerous other attractions give those whose main reason for coming was to see the falls plenty to do when they’re not actually seeing the falls.
They were built by the sort of out of the box thinking that can’t be imagined by little minds fearful of the Uber car service, Airbnb or other modern conveniences the rest of the world has long since adapted to.
In many ways, the best thing that could have happened for Niagara Falls would have been Mark Hamister’s failure to secure the nearly $36 million he says he needs to build a truck stop motel here.
Sometimes we just can’t catch a break.
